'So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 1984 in the former nation state of West Germany, audiences were treated to a slice of subversive cinema with the theatrical release of Decoder.
For those of you unfamiliar with the work, let me give a bit of summary. There's a vast swath of history among conspiracy theorists -- not saying it's true, not saying it isn't -- about the efforts of clandestine government agencies seeking to -- ahem -- control civilization even in its daily existence. For example, America's Central Intelligence Agency has long been fabled to have tampered with various forms of mind control -- again: not saying it's true, not denying its possibility -- and all one need do is conduct your run-of-the-mill Google search into said topic to see there's plenty written about such fringe science out there on the Information Superhighway.
Well, what if regular folks stumbled across the existence of such technological capabilities?
That's essentially the foundation around which Decoder builds its cinematic universe. Wikipedia.org suggests that this counter culture flick was one of the earlier attempts to dabble in cyberpunk sensibilities (link), and the site even suggests that it was long considered 'forgotten' until resurfacing with home video releases in the late 2010's. Did we forget it ... or did 'the man' wants us to forget it? I guess we'll always wonder ... or, at least, the conspiracists out there will. I consider myself among them ... proudly.
In any event ...
The film was written (in part) and directed by German artist Muscha (aka Jürgen Muschalek) (link) along with other script contributions from Klaus Maeck (link), Volker Schäfer, and Trini Trimpop. The cast includes electronic musician and actor F.M. Enheit (link), William 'Bill' Rice, Christiane Felscherinow (link), Britzhold Baron De Belle, Matthias Fuchs, William S. Burroughs (link), Genesis P-Orridge (link), Slim Darko, and others. A bit of casual reading into the talent alone should give an indication as to how the project is more than a bit 'out there' so far as mainstream audiences are concerned; but having not seen this one -- only heard about it -- I really can't say anything further on that topic.
Here's the plot summary as provided by our friends at IMDB.com:
"A noise enthusiast discovers that by changing the background music from pleasantly calming to industrial "noise" music, he can incite riots and a revolution against the looming power of the government."
It looks like the folks at Vinegar Syndrome were originally involved in the film's resurgence on home video. There is a citation for it having been previously available for purchase on the company's website, but it's listed as 'sold out' presently. I'm guessing this one might be a bit hard to locate for those of you who are interested in such oddities, but best of luck in getting your hands on a copy of finding it available for streaming.
Theatrical trailer is below. Give it a gander if you're so inclined.
As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ
On this day in 1984 in the former nation state of West Germany, audiences were treated to a slice of subversive cinema with the theatrical release of Decoder.
For those of you unfamiliar with the work, let me give a bit of summary. There's a vast swath of history among conspiracy theorists -- not saying it's true, not saying it isn't -- about the efforts of clandestine government agencies seeking to -- ahem -- control civilization even in its daily existence. For example, America's Central Intelligence Agency has long been fabled to have tampered with various forms of mind control -- again: not saying it's true, not denying its possibility -- and all one need do is conduct your run-of-the-mill Google search into said topic to see there's plenty written about such fringe science out there on the Information Superhighway.
Well, what if regular folks stumbled across the existence of such technological capabilities?
That's essentially the foundation around which Decoder builds its cinematic universe. Wikipedia.org suggests that this counter culture flick was one of the earlier attempts to dabble in cyberpunk sensibilities (link), and the site even suggests that it was long considered 'forgotten' until resurfacing with home video releases in the late 2010's. Did we forget it ... or did 'the man' wants us to forget it? I guess we'll always wonder ... or, at least, the conspiracists out there will. I consider myself among them ... proudly.
In any event ...
The film was written (in part) and directed by German artist Muscha (aka Jürgen Muschalek) (link) along with other script contributions from Klaus Maeck (link), Volker Schäfer, and Trini Trimpop. The cast includes electronic musician and actor F.M. Enheit (link), William 'Bill' Rice, Christiane Felscherinow (link), Britzhold Baron De Belle, Matthias Fuchs, William S. Burroughs (link), Genesis P-Orridge (link), Slim Darko, and others. A bit of casual reading into the talent alone should give an indication as to how the project is more than a bit 'out there' so far as mainstream audiences are concerned; but having not seen this one -- only heard about it -- I really can't say anything further on that topic.
Here's the plot summary as provided by our friends at IMDB.com:
"A noise enthusiast discovers that by changing the background music from pleasantly calming to industrial "noise" music, he can incite riots and a revolution against the looming power of the government."
It looks like the folks at Vinegar Syndrome were originally involved in the film's resurgence on home video. There is a citation for it having been previously available for purchase on the company's website, but it's listed as 'sold out' presently. I'm guessing this one might be a bit hard to locate for those of you who are interested in such oddities, but best of luck in getting your hands on a copy of finding it available for streaming.
Theatrical trailer is below. Give it a gander if you're so inclined.
As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ
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